Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Gupta wins Commonwealth Championshipp

Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta has won the 2017 Commonwealth Championship for the 4th time, to become the most successful player in the tournaments history. He wrapped his title with a somewhat crushing victory over Australian IM Aleks Wohl. Wohl and Gupta had shared the lead on 6.5/8 going into the last round, but despite his loss, Wohl tied for 4th place, and was the only non Indian player in the top 10. Another good performer for Australia was IM Rishi Sardana, who finished on 6/9.
Although the field mainly came from the host country of India, there were players from 8 other Commonwealth nations, including New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa.
Here is the crucial final round game between Gupta and Wohl. After a mistake on move 9 Wohl was already in trouble, and Gupta finished the game with ruthless GM precision.